Bloodfire Quest (The Dark Legacy of Shannara #2)

My review has spoilers, so be warned. Continuing from my review of Wards of Faerie, I\’m saddened to see Terry fall so far from the skilled author he once was. Stick to his early work if you want to enjoy fantasy. He didn\’t improve anything with Bloodfire Quest. It had all the same problems as Wards of Faerie. In addition to the problems in it, he had additional flaws and mistakes in this one. Seersha, in discussing options with Railing and the others, states that Tael Riverine made prisoners of the Ard Rhys and Redden for a reason. Problem: none of them ever knew that he had captured them. This is a flaw in which the author forgot who knew what, and since he knows, he made the mistake of having characters know something that they had no way of knowing. Seersha, Railing, and the others, save for Crace Coram, havent been inside the Forbidding, and Crace was carried away by the dragon and not around to learn that Kyber and Redden were captured. Then, just a couple pages later, Railing (a dumb name incidentally (he might as well have named him Banister)) ponders the Speakmans prediction that only one of them would return from the expedition. Problem: Kyber never told the members of the expedition that he said that, not wanting to scare them. Once again, Brooks makes a mistake about what characters know what information. I feel this is partly due to his habit of writing from an omniscient point of view, which is annoying and difficult to follow anyway. He moves from one characters point of view to anothers without even a transition paragraph, let alone a section or chapter break. Its jarring, and every time he does it, I get kicked out of the story. It seems as if he feels that since he, as the author, is omniscient, that all of his characters should be so. The irony there is that they\’re all tremendously dimwitted and weak. Note again that all of his Druids in these books are weaklings. Kyber, in her fight with Tael Riverine, manages to use magic a scant few times before the elixir shed taken to strengthen herself wears off. So what? Her magic and capabilities should not have been tied entirely to that elixir. She shouldve been able to push herself and use it for a long battle, but the heavy-handed author wanted her to die in that scene, and so she dies in pathetic fashion, putting up the lamest fight ever. She had been the Ard Rhys for a hundred years, and thats the best she could do? Again, I feel that the characters are so stupid and weak that I wish Brooks would just write that the demons win and kill all mortals in the Four Lands. There are no characters worth cheering for, so that at least would be a way to end his tale once and for all. Arling is yet another stupid-beyond-belief character. All she does is whine endlessly about being Chosen and being asked to become the next Ellcrys. Boo hoo. Were treated to numerous scenes in which Amberle, the current Ellcrys, coddles her while trying to convince her as to how strong she is and that she can do it. Its a shock, yes, but eventually the Ellcrys just needs to tell her to pick one of two options. One, stop whining and become the next Ellcrys. Two, refuse and die with everyone else to the demon horde. Its that simple. The character cant even grasp that her life as a whiny teenager would be over either way. And if I was that Ellcrys, I would refuse to give a seed in order to see to it that all the petty and selfish people and races get what they deserve: destruction. There is no character growth in any character in this series–nothing to help me develop rooting interest in them. Aphenweak and stupid as ever. She takes almost two full books to realize that Cymrian loves her, and it still took another character telling her point blank. Duh. Again, were supposed to believe that Druids are intelligent and intuitive. Shes brain dead. And her expedition is constantly chased and hunted by Federation forces that lack magic and yet theyre always on the defensive, always being caught or outwitted. Its beyond stupid. Also, though Aphen has the blue Elfstones, and this entire series is supposed to be about recovering all the Elfstones so the Druids can save the world, she never uses them to defend herself or others or to find her lost sister. Her argument is that using the magic will allow other magic users to find them. So what? Powerful enemies are about to kill them, and what does Aphen do? Use her weakest magic instead. Yay, how brilliant! They lose, and their ship is destroyed. The red-shirt characters (think Star Trek) die in the crash, but of course the only survivors are the three main characters in that scene. How believable. And, again, Brooks only has them crash because he wants to show the scene in which the mutants hunt and try to kill them. Its lame. Then, to top it all off, after Arling goes missing, Aphen again refuses to use the Elfstones, which would have immediately solved the problem, solely because Brooks, in heavy-handed fashion, wants to have her captured by the Federation. Also, the book is titled Boodfire Quest, but the actual quest takes up about 1% of the actual story. Again, very little happens in this story. We\’re treated to countless scenes of characters sitting around talking, whining, and planning what they should do, but very little happens to advance the story. Also, airships make everything boring. Characters can supposedly get anywhere in a few days at most and yet the most they do in seeking the Bloodfire is to fly a short distance from Arborlon before getting shot down. Brooks couldve done far better to have required them to leave the airship behind and search on foot, and that wouldve allowed for the mutants to hunt them, which wouldve been reminiscent of The Elfstones of Shannara with the Reaper hunting Wil Ohmsford and Amberle. At least then fans would\’ve had nostalgia. As it is, the book is a total disappointment. For a brief moment I thought something cool was happening in the story when Railing meets the King of the Silver River, but just like Arling ignoring the Ellcrys, he ignores the ancient and wise being to insist that he pursue the stupid course of action that hed previously chosen. Its okay to have a stupid character in an entire cast of characters, often for comic relief, but never before have I seen a story where every character is so stupid. Im starting to believe that Terry Brooks wrote this series to see how much he could get away with before his audience rebelled. Frankly, Im surprised that his publishers stuck with him after these. Apparently, you dont have to work hard to write well once youve already made a name for yourself. Tragic.

This was another good book in this series. I\’m re-reading the entire series and I\’ve noted in other reviews I\’ve made on the books that the author made a change from everything working out for the characters and it just being a matter of how they got from the beginning to the end, to a style where characters you\’re sure the author won\’t kill, end up dying. It\’s not quite George RR Martin levels, but they\’ve gotten more grim and realistic than some of the past ones. There are two reasons that I gave it four stars instead of five. Reason one is that it doesn\’t have the oomph that some of his previous books have had for me. It\’s possible that it\’s just subjective, but I know that if you\’re reading this review of book number 26 in a 33 book series, you\’re most likely an avid reader. I\’m also sure that at some point you\’ve come across a passage in a book that has had a real emotional impact on you. Maybe you despaired for a character or laughed out loud. While some of his previous few books have had moments like that, the two books I\’ve read in this current set haven\’t had that impact for me. Even things that I think should. The second reason, and there isn\’t as much of it in this book as the first one, is that he seems to be cheating on some things. For instance, in the last book, there was a random wall of rocks stopping the characters from going further in the airships the author created. Then later, when they need the airship to come, it miraculously finds it\’s way around. The only reason it seems to have been there was to temporarily split up the characters and force them to face hardships they wouldn\’t have otherwise faced. There are a few things like that in this series and I feel like a writer of his skill could have done better. Mostly because I\’ve seen him do better with similar situations. so this is a definite read for fans of the series and it\’s mostly well written. I\’m looking forward to finishing the next one.

I found this volume a tad disappointing. It was shorter than previous book, and its Point Of View switches were abrupt to me. On top of that, the action seemed uneven, for me at least. But hey, its a Shannara story by Brooks, so its not all bad. We pick up soon after Wards of Faerie ended, with the principal characters in three groups. The part of the Druid expedition in the Forbidding, the part still in the Four Lands, and Aphen, Arling, Cymrian, along with Woostra, have fled to Arbolon, after fleeing Paranor. Things cant get worse, right? We quickly find out that the Ellcrys is dying and has picked Arling as its successor. Something the young girl refuses to accept. The Federation doesnt show up till half way through the book. Stoon is fleshed out, character wise, nicely. Edinja Orle, the new Prime Minister, is one scary woman. As a magic user with evil intent, I would not want to cross her. I wish I could say things go well for folks, but its mostly downhill. Hopefully there is an upturn in the last of the trilogy.

I\’m a long time fan of Terry Brooks (right back to first edition Sword Of Shannara) He grabbed me again with \’Armageddons children\’, a great link between the \’Word and the void\’ series and \’Shannara\’ series, but this latest offering seem\’s forced and stale. There\’s nothing worse than a writer with nothing to say, but who takes a good four hundred pages to say it. If I could set the scene here it would go something like this……..\”Mr Brooks, what\’s the first book in the the new trilogy about?\” \”Oh I\’m glad you asked\” says Mr Brooks, \”It\’s about jack and Jill who go up a hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack falls down and breaks his crown and…Yadah, yadah, yadah….. \” Oh ok Terry, how about the second book\”. \”Well that\’s totally different, that\’s about Kate and Karl…..Who go up an incline to fetch a container of liquid. Karl slips and gets a concussion and……\”Ok Mr Brooks I think we\’re getting it, how about the third book. \”Oh now your talking, that\’s about Bob and Brenda. They climb a mountain for a flask on fluid and…….\”Mr Brooks…..Forget it!! I\’m no writer (I think I\’ve just proved that), but the formula is getting a bit weak. I don\’t think Terry Brooks had a story he wanted to tell, but maybe the publishers just puhed and pushed. I recently read Jean Auels\’ latest offering in the \’Earths children\’ series and got the same feeling, she also constantly repeated herself padding out, what otherwise would have been a much shorter book, but with still a very weak story line. I\’m sorry Mr Brooks, but although I will purchase the last book of the trilogy (and that only because I am a die hard fan) I can\’t give this more than 2 stars (and those two are for your time and effort not the content). Anybody who is not a fan and is looking for a book to pass the time and keep your interest……..Go and buy Dan Brown \’Inferno\’.

For fans of Brooks\’ Shannara series here comes the second installment in a new trilogy expanding on the world and happenings. Set in a volatile period of Elven history, where science and technology is getting rediscovered by the races just as the magical power is slowly waning (the exception being the handful of druids still very much invested in it), it goes sufficiently far to be an intriguing volume drawing you further into the new trilogy. A quest for finding long lost elfstones remains one of the main threads in the book, the other being the salvation of the failed expedition into the Forbidding. This means lots of action filled sequences, fights by the minute and increasingly horrendous enemies to contend with. To top it off, the Ellcrys is failing, providing the protagonist with additional personal anguish in the form of her sister being chosen to renew it. While most of the characters were only briefly elaborated upon in the first book of the trilogy ( Wards of Faerie: Book 1 of The Dark Legacy of Shannara ), the author uses the second volume to expand on this and make most of them relatively well rounded. If you have read all of the previous Shannara books, there may be little that is new here; on the other hand it is not essential to know all of the Shannara world\’s history to enjoy the book. In the end it managed to draw me in sufficiently so that I continued on straight to Witch Wraith: Book 3 of The Dark Legacy of Shannara , something I belive most other SFF fans will do, too.

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